People may want to pay more taxes if they get more, better services -- not if the money is going to be gobbled up by pensioners. What's necessary is a rollback in the pensions of not only future workers but current ones.

2. Convince your public employee union friends to scream like hell against the pension push. Voters don't believe the pension reform proposals are real because the howls against them aren't loud enough. Unions, if they want more taxes, need to ramp this up. At the same time, those unions should quietly tell elected officials to go ahead and go hard after pensions. Yes, it's misdirection--but it's necessary if you want taxes.

3. Delay your tax proposal until 2014.

Convincing people to raise taxes quickly, at a time with so many other proposals on the ballot, is too hard. Better to take your time, and spend the next three years meeting with people -- particularly opponents -- about what you're up to. It still won't be easy, but your chances will be better.

4. Tell everyone that your tax increase won't touch them.

Even if it's not true. People want someone else to pay their taxes for them.

5. Draft your measure to promise the money raised by the taxes to as many people as possible.

It's terrible policy, and makes it harder to balance the budget. But people love gifts.

6. When you lose even after doing all those things, realize that doing tax increases -- or any kind of fiscal initiative -- is too hard politicallly and too dangerous as a policy matter.

Spend your time working for a redesign of the budget and governance system -- so that tax increases can be made in the legislature, not at the ballot by people like you.